Saturday 3rd October 2015

Another dose of early October fare today including 100 Goldcrest, 20 Chiffchaff, 15 Blackcap, 8 Swallow, 4 Sand Martin, 3 Grey Wags, 3 Yellow-browed Warbler, 2 Lesser 'throat, 2 Redstart, 2 Yellow Wags, 2 Wheatear, Firecrest, Redwing, Snipe & White Wagtail. 5 new Wrens ringed plus yet more new Blue Tits indicates that they are also on the move but the lack of any new Robins ringed today is surprising considering the ringing totals. Visible migration poor but included 5 Skylark & 3 Siskin south. 9 young Mute Swans came past then up river is a rare mention for this species on the blog here. Offshore movements insignificant.

93 ringed: 52 goldcrest, 12 chiffchaff, 12 blackcap, 5 wren, 4 blue tit, 3 blackbird, 1 dunnock, 1 grey wagtail, 1 redstart, 1 lesser whitethroat, 1 firecrest.

Ground Nesting Birds Enclosures

It is intended to take down the temporary fencing put up for ground nesting birds (that has been left up this year into the autumn to aid the ground flora within these areas) on Monday 5th October. Many hands make light work so if you are able to help please meet at the garage alongside the cottage at 0930hrs. Please wear appropriate footwear for the task in hand.

Friday 2nd October 2015

New migrants today included 18 Wigeon, 10 Brent Geese, 4 Oystercatcher, 1 Grey Heron, 40 Meadow Pipit, 3 Rock Pipit, 10 Blackcap, 6 Chiffchaff, 3 Yellow-browed Warbler, 87+ Goldcrest, 2 Firecrest, 11 Robin, 2 Wheatear, 1 Common Redstart, 1 Pied Flycatcher, 19 Swallow, 11 Blackbird, 3 Song Thrush, 1 Redwing, 1 Skylark, 10 Greenfinch, 4 Siskin and 3 Redpoll.

Not so many Wheatear have passed through the observatory this Autumn, so this adult bird the other day was nice to see.

Ringing: 74 birds ringed during the day including 50 Goldcrest, 11 Blue Tit, 6 Robin, 2 Great Tit, 1 Wren, 1 Dunnock, 1 Blackbird, 1 Blackcap and 1 Chiffchaff.

Thursday 1st October 2015

Clear skies and a rather strong easterly wind and still we continue to get new arrivals of migrants with a few proper autumnal species.

Offshore, sea watching produced 352 Brent Geese heading South, with 63 Wigeon and 28 Teal. Also, 1 Cormorant and 3 Common Gull. This time of year we have a quite a decent passage of winter wildfowl with some days being rather spectacular as our wintering populations of geese and duck descend onto our estuaries.

At the observatory and on the nature reserve were 10 Robin, 20+ Goldcrest, 2 Firecrest, 10 Swallow, 6 Meadow Pipit, 1 Rock Pipit, 3 Wheatear, 1 Common Redstart, 3 Grey Wagtail, 5 Goldfinch, 2 Stock Dove, 1 Jackdaw, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Redwing, 1 Buzzard and 2 Yellow-browed Warbler.

Peregrine Falcon giving a few appearances lately and as this individual is colour-ringed, it looks to be foreign but we wait to gain better views over the coming days to enable us to confirm its origin.

Ringing: 25 birds ringed during the day which included 15 Goldcrest, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, 1 Robin, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Wren, 1 Meadow Pipit and 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker.

September Ringing Totals

A total of 518 birds of 37 species ringed in September with several nice additions including the 17th Kingfisher to be ringed at the observatory and 4 Yellow-browed Warbler in four consecutive days.

Starling	8		Spotted Flycatcher	1
Blackbird	2		Pied Flycatcher	5
Song Thrush	8		Common Redstart	8
Redwing	2		Wren	6
Blue Tit	47		Dunnock	9
Great Tit	14		Robin	44
Coal Tit	2		Grey Wagtail	32
Long-tailed Tit	10		Chaffinch	10
Chiffchaff	86		Greenfinch	3
Willow Warbler	28		Goldfinch	7
Blackcap	80		Linnet	2
Garden Warbler	3		Redpoll	1
Common Whitethroat	8		G.S.Woodpecker	2
Lesser Whitethroat	6		Woodpigeon	3
Reed Warbler	2		Little Owl	1
Goldcrest	50		Sparrowhawk	2
Firecrest	8		Kingfisher	1
Meadow Pipit	10		Swallow	3
Yellow-browed Warbler	4

Wednesday 30th September 2015

A Red-breasted Goose heading south with a couple of Brents was noted not long after this at Frinton-on-sea, Essex - the only question now is is this one of the regular returning wintering birds that frequents these shores in the winter month or is it an escaped cage bird ? Three Spoonbill heading north continues the fine run of records of this species lately. Three Yellow-browed Warblers here today make us believe we have had 9 different individuals over the last 4 days. The one above illustrates the narrow crown stripe that can be difficult to see in the field. A Coal Tit trapped was a British race bird. A run of Coal Tits recently all seem to be "British" whereas at this time of the year "Continental" race birds are normally the race we get - the last time any numbers of "British" race birds were noted at this time of the year was over 30 years ago. With clear sunny conditions not a huge amount of common migrants around the site but they included 10 Robin, 8 Blackcap, 7 Grey Wags, 6 Goldcrest, 6 Swallow, 6 Mipit, 3 Siskin, 2 Chiffchaff, Redstart, Ring Ouzel, Redwing,  Firecrest, Rock Pipit, Stonechat plus a couple of Blackbirds that literally fell out of the sky late morning indicating the start of autumn passage for this species.Offshore southbound 337 Brents, 196 Wigeon, 47 Pintail & 14 Teal. Out of the wind still plenty of butterflies, Southern Hawker, Migrant Hawker plus Common Darter.

22 birds ringed: 5 goldcrest, 5 grey wagtail, 3 blackcap, 3 blue tit, 2 robin, 1 song thrush, 1 coal tit, 1 yellow-browed warbler, 1 firecrest.

Tuesday 29th September 2015

A slightly stronger easterly wind today produced a new arrival of migrants which continued throughout the day.

Migrants today were 156 Brent Geese, 186 Teal, 136 Wigeon, 45 Pintail, 6 Gannet, 3 Mediterranean Gull, 2 Cormorant, 1 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Firecrest, 1 Common Redstart, 9 Goldfinch, 1 Redpoll, 3 Swallow, 14 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Wheatear, 10 Meadow Pipit. 2 Rock Pipit, 3 Skylark, 1 Woodlark, 1 Stonechat, 5 Song Thrush, 1 Redwing, 3 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 2 Yellow-browed Warbler and 2 Coal Tit.

Ringing: 17 birds ringed throughout the day which included 4 Robin, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Great Tit, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Firecrest, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 1 Redwing and another Yellow-browed Warbler - (3 in 3 days).

Monday 28th September 2015

The continuing easterly winds keep the birds rolling in with a few new migrants on-site throughout the day. 

Migrants today included 2 Yellow-browed Warbler, 3 Song Thrush, 1 Stock Dove, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Firecrest, 2 Grey Wagtail, 5 Meadow Pipit, 1 Rock Pipit, 1 Common Redstart, 8 Swallow, 7 Blackcap, 6 Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler plus an (Acredula type), 15 Goldfinch, 8 Greenfinch, 8 Chaffinch, 1 Siskin, 1 Redpoll, 2 Redwing, 89 Teal, 88 Brent Goose, 64 Wigeon, 3 Pintail, 1 Common Scoter, 17 Cormorant, 7 Mediterranean Gull, 1 Arctic Skua, 1 Common Tern and 2 Oystercatcher.

Several Firecrest moving through the observatory at the moment - absolutely beautiful birds.

Ringing: 14 birds ringed during the day which included 3 Blue Tit, 2 Blackcap, 2 Robin, 1 Blackbird,

1 Dunnock, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Firecrest, 1 Redwing and the best of all a Yellow-browed Warbler - (the 2nd this month).

Sunday 27th September 2015

Clear chilly nights with light north-easterly winds are generally good for migration at this time, and so it proved as this Yellow-browed Warbler (above) turned up in the Poplars behind the obs compound. Apart from that it was quieter than of late with only small numbers of migrants appearing to be around. These included a Coal Tit, Whinchat, 6 Chiffchaff, 4 Blackcap and 2 Goldcrest, whilst offshore only 22 Brent Geese and very small numbers of ducks are on the move. STOP PRESS. A second Yellow-browed Warbler has just been trapped while observers were still watching the first individual.

17 birds were ringed, 1 Yellow-browed Warbler, 4 Blackcap, 4 Blue Tit, and 1 each of Blackbird, Song Thrush, Wren, Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Meadow Pipit, Robin, Goldcrest.